


How True A Knight?

by TeamGwenee



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Angst, F/M, Fluff, Jaime has Lannister cooties, Post Season 7, Post War
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-05-27
Updated: 2018-05-27
Packaged: 2019-05-14 15:04:53
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,212
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14771919
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TeamGwenee/pseuds/TeamGwenee
Summary: Sansa suspects Ser Jaime to be plotting against her family, and fears that Brienne may be involved.The truth is far more worse.





	How True A Knight?

Yes, Lady Brienne had proved herself loyal. Time after time after time. She gave everything and asked for nothing. She was the true knight Sansa had dreamed of since childhood, if somewhat more female than she had imagined. Her courage, her kindness. She was everything a knight should be.

And yet what if? Try as she might Sansa could not help that constant, niggling and poisonous, what if? For all that Lady Brienne sprouted about oaths and honour, she wore that bastardized imitation of her father's sword on her hip, hideously gaudy with gold and rubies. Beneath a starkly plain cloak of wool and fur was a suit of armour, proudly worn and gifted by the same Lannister who presented her stolen sword.

She was not even of the North. Daughter of some lord in the Stormlands, his only heir. Her home and family far from the iron grip of Winterfell, Lady Brienne had nothing but her own conscience to keep her loyal to the Starks.

To Sansa.

And then _he_ turned up. Haughty and unrepentant before the eyes of hundred. Without the promised army and carrying nothing but the news of his sister-lover's betrayal. And himself. A one-handed, disgraced knight. Hardly a worthwhile trade for a dragon. But handsome. That could not be forgotten. With the same silver tongue of all those golden haired lions.

Perhaps that is what drove Brienne to speak for him. To plead for his life and pledge her own on his honour. Sansa remembered all too well the effect beautiful Lannisters had on tender hearted women longing for love. And Brienne; for all her good qualities, was far from one to inspire the flames of attraction and must have received little in the way of romance. (Well, unless Tormund Giantsbane's grotesque parody of a courtship could be counted).

Those gifts, a few well placed smiles and a touch of the arm here and there, the ugly woman knight's affection starved heart could not help but be ensnared. Easy to use, easy to fool.

The Knight King defeated, Jon and Queen Daenerys were now looking towards the southern threat. Cersei Lannister, the Kingslayer's beautiful sister. The Kingslayer would be accompanying them (thankfully never to return). Brienne also. Should she decide to do what was right and return North to fulfil her oaths were uncertain. There was talk of her remaining on Tarth, taking up her role as the future Evenstar. Some even speculated that the Kingslayer would remain with her.

It was hard for Sansa to imagine Brienne as a lady of her own keep. And she had no particular desire to. Brienne was _her_ knight.

In the end, Sansa reasoned her decision was pragmatic. For all of their sakes, especially Brienne's. No harm could come from being cautious. With the armies riding South in mere days, it behove Sansa to take certain lengths to ensure Ser Jaime's supposed loyalty.

She would have him watched. He and Lady Brienne, who was never far from his side. They would be observed carefully. Ser Jaime's affections and their loyalty would be judged as to whether they were genuine, or a sham. Watched by someone who could go unseen, who could read faces like a book.

Arya burst into Sansa's chambers, white and shaking like a leaf. Sansa's heart clenched. After all the sisters had been through, very little could wring such a reaction from Arya. Whatever she had seen between the Kingslayer and Brienne must have been truly heart rendering.

“Well?” Sansa demanded, thrusting a goblet of ale into her sister's clammy hands.

Arya slumped forward in her seat, staring at her hands.

“Oh Sansa!” she cried suddenly, her voice anguished, “It was awful,”  
Sansa nodded for her to go on. “What happened?”

Arya said nothing, trembling and blinking her wide, stricken eyes.

“It is the Kingslayer?” Sansa prodded, “And Lady Brienne?” Sansa's voice shook slightly, “Lady Brienne, she is in cahoots with him?”

Arya let out a broken bark of laughter. “I'll say,” she spat at the ground.

Sansa shut her eyes and counted backwards from ten. It would do no good to cry, not now. Not even as her true knight proved herself false.

“What did you see?” Sansa said calmly, fingers clutched round the stem of her goblet.

“Oh Sansa!” Arya cried once more, “They were kissing!”

Sansa blinked slowly. “Yes, and?”

“With tongues! It looked like he was eating her face. I followed them into the courtyard and they were talking about riding South, when he started spouting all this shite about how he was a changed man for having known her and how she reminded him of what it was to be a true knight; crap like that-”

“And was he telling the truth?” Sansa leant forward, colour returning to her cheeks, “He meant that he intends to be a changed man, a true knight?”

“What?” Arya snapped, “Yes, yes,” she said impatiently, “He was telling the truth. But don't you see Sansa? Ser Jaime kissed Brienne, _and she let him!”_

Sansa sat back in her set, incredulous laughter bubbling from her chest and out her lips. The look of pure disgust painted on Arya's would have been worthy of Arya having discovered a corpse being eaten from the inside out by maggots. In fact, the times in which Arya had seen such a sight probably hadn't elicited such a distraught reaction.

Sometimes Sansa forgot how young Arya was. Arya may have endured many things, but the betrayal of the warrior woman willingly allowing a Lannister to touch her was beyond the pale.

“Sansa?” Arya asked, “Did Brienne ever tell you about the baths at Harrenhal?”

“No she didn't,” Sansa said swiftly, “And considering what you just told me, I am glad she kept it quiet,”

Arya shook her head furiously. “No, it was nothing like. Their first time was in the yard. Ser Jaime grabbed her hand and waist and dipped her, like they were dancing,” Arya's lip curled, “Then he stuck his tongue down her throat and said 'I’ve wanted you since the baths at Harrenhal’, then he kissed her _again._ It was disgusting,” Arya retched.

Sansa bit her lips, unladylike snorts and giggles protesting and struggling to escape. “Oh well,” she said at last,placing a consoling hand on her sister's shoulder, “At least we now know Ser Jaime and Lady Brienne are not plotting anything,”

“No,” Arya grunted, “Unless you count the seven children they are planning to have once they are settled on Tarth,”

Sansa's eyebrows shot up. “ _Seven_ children?”

“Ser Jaime wanted more than that. He wanted ten. But Brienne asked him how many of the children he is planning on carrying and beat him down to seven,” Arya explained.

Sansa smiled, pushing down a small curdle of despair in her stomach. So Lady Brienne was to settle South after all, her and Ser Jaime. He had claimed Sansa's true knight as his own, and had been claimed in turn with equal enthusiasm. Just another precious thing taken from Sansa by a Lannister.

But in this case, Sansa had to concede, she could complain little. Brienne deserved happiness and in truth Jaime had taken nothing from Sansa.

Brienne had been his all along. Just as Jaime was hers.

 

 


End file.
